WUNRN
UN Refugee Agency - UNHCR
REFUGEE WOMEN & GIRLS
In any refugee population, approximately 50 percent of the uprooted people are women and girls. Stripped of the protection of their homes, their government and often their family structure, females are often particularly vulnerable. They face the rigours of long journeys into exile, official harassment or indifference and frequent sexual abuse - even after reaching an apparent place of safety.
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SUDAN - 10 YEARS AFTER CRISIS BEGAN,
REFUGEES FEAR RETURNING HOME TO SUDAN - WOMEN & CHILDREN
A decade after the start of the
Darfur conflict in
AMDJARASS, Chad 01 Mar 2013 - A decade after the start of the Darfur conflict in Sudan, some 300,000 refugees remain in camps across the border in eastern Chad, reluctant to return home because of ongoing insecurity, loss of property and fear of oppression.
“Refugees
tell us that they have no homes to return to and will only go back when there
is real peace and security,” says Felix Leger, who oversees the International
Rescue Committee’s humanitarian aid programs in Chad.
The
conflict in Darfur started in late February 2003 when rebels took up arms
against the government of Sudan, accusing it of neglect and oppression of
non-Arab Sudanese. Government forces and allied militias responded with brutal
force. According to UN estimates, more than 300,000 Darfuris were killed
and some 2.8 million displaced in the spiraling violence and humanitarian
crisis that ensued for years. While the conflict has significantly ebbed,
insecurity continues to plague Darfur, including a spike in inter-tribal
fighting in the past month that triggered new displacement.
“I
can’t go back for the same reasons that made me flee. The problems are still
there,” says Maka Souliman Youssif, who fled her village in Darfur more than
nine years ago and today, teaches at a refugee school in Oure Cassoni Camp in
northeastern Chad. “Where I am from there is nothing there. Everything was
burned down.”
Osman
Imam Osman, also living at Oure Cassoni Camp, says he wants to go home, but not
until fighting stops and services are restored. “In Darfur and here, people are
still displaced and can’t go back to their villages,” he told the IRC earlier
this month. “Security is still very bad, even just across the border not too
far from here. If security is good and the development is better, yes, of
course I would go back. But the peace needs to be kept.”
While
refugees in Chad remain dependent on humanitarian aid for survival, donor
attention is gradually fading and resources have shifted to other pressing
crises, like those in Syria and Mali.
The
IRC runs schools, health centers and water and sanitation programs in three of
the 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad. But a 15% funding cut in 2012 and
25% in 2013 has forced the IRC and other aid organizations to downsize. For the
IRC’s part, it has had to shutter its secondary schools for refugee youth,
reduce by nearly half the number of teachers in its pre-school and primary
schools and scale back community health and hygiene promotion activities.
“It’s
critical that the governments of Chad and Sudan continue their dialogue and
find solutions for the safe return of refugees,” says Leger. “It would be
a tragedy if we’re all still here marking the 20th anniversary of the Darfur
conflict. At the same time, donors who have been generous in their assistance
these past 10 years must not forget the Darfuri refugees. Their basic needs
must be covered for as long as they stay in Chad. Further cut backs will only
make their lives more precarious in the future.”
The
IRC - International Rescue Committee - has been working in eastern Chad since
2004. Today the organization aids 84,000 Darfuri refugees in three camps and
offers services to 33,000 Chadians living nearby. The IRC also provides free
emergency health and nutrition care to 120,000 children, pregnant women and new
mothers in western and central Chad.